The Word on the Street

The God of the Christians only? Or of the whole world? What about the Drug Dealer?

So many amazing and fascinating things go on in Ipswich, as I move around on the streets making friends with people. There are lots of stories I can’t share, for various reasons, but I find there are many that I can.

I hope this series gives a colourful insight into life in the street culture of Ipswich. This is the community into which I speak God’s Word. I love the people, and I see God powerfully at work here.

The God of the Christians only? Or of the whole world? What about the Drug Dealer?

A young man who sells drugs on the streets is well known in the community, and knows who I am. He actually came to see me a couple of years ago at the Chat Room, and against my advice, gave his life to the Lord (my advice was based on the recognition that he really didn’t seem to appreciate the gravity of what he was doing).

I didn’t get to know him at all well, but I know his girlfriend.

I was praying for him, as is my custom. I pray for lots of people around Ipswich. While I was in prayer for this particular man, God gave me a specific message for him. The next Tuesday, I sought him out.

I pulled him aside, uncertain of the reception I would receive. I told him I had been praying for him, and he appreciated that. I told him that God had given me a message for him, and he was prepared to hear me on that. So I told him. Effectively it was this:

You’re involved in some big [criminal] deal at the moment. It’s going to go bad, and you will be left “holding the can”.

That was as much as I had. I didn’t know anything more specific. He started surmising that he had sold drugs to “an undercover cop”. Evidently he had been suspicious about one of his recent customers. Anyway, I left him to it.

Ticking up

Well, God cares about you

Some background information is necessary to understand the next part of the story. There is a slang term in the drug world, “tick me up”, which means, “I don’t have cash right now, so put these drugs on my account”. This is how people become indebted to drug dealers.

8 months or so later, God spoke to me again about this same man. I told my friends about God’s message for him, and they were shaking their heads, saying, “I’d like to see his face when you tell him that!”

I sought him out again.

When I caught up with him, I pulled him aside and said, “I’ve got another word from God for you…”, and was surprised that he was instantly attentive, and eager to hear more. I must have paused for a moment, so he explained, “You know what you told me back in January, about that deal going bad? That’s exactly what happened, just three weeks later. I was in a deal with two other lads to take a big order of drugs. They stole the drugs and left me owing a lot of money to the supplier!”

So I had his attention. I said, “Well, God cares about you”. He believed me.

Then I delivered the message:

Mate, do you remember about two years ago you came into chat room and you were really down? You remember how you wanted to give your life to the Lord? You remember how I tried to talk you out of it?

He was nodding attentively

I didn’t think you really knew what you were getting yourself into. I didn’t think you were ready to make a decision like that. But you insisted. You remember?

I left him in silence for several moments and then said, “You need to come and see me. You walk past all the time and wave, but you need to come and talk to me. God has plans for your life, man. What are you doing?”